


It Wasn’t Supposed To Happen Like This, But Maybe That’s Okay

by Nyankittypug



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: (Don't worry I'll put tw for when panic attacks happen and everything of the sort), Amity Blight gives good hugs, Angst, Anxiety, Bisexual Disaster Luz Noceda, Body Horror, Bullying, Eda is best mom, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Lots, Luz Noceda Needs a Hug, Luz has anxiety, Luz has depression, Mild Gore, OF, Panic Attacks, The Owl Girl Au, Useless but also useful Lesbian Amity Blight, Will update tags when needed, but may get better, lesbian fluff, light cursing, like i said, oh also forgot to mention, she is sad bean, will add more tags as needed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:42:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 19,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26228869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyankittypug/pseuds/Nyankittypug
Summary: It wasn't supposed to end this way, but...maybe this wasn't an ending, maybe it was a beginning. Luz has a way to go home, a mother to go home to, but a family at her side already and a curse that maybe might not be a problem. That is, if she can control it.Also, this was inspired by @spotty8ee's AU The Owl Girl AU and their book Owlet, check them out, they're writing is really cool and they have a very interesting perspective!(On hold for a bit this owl needs some sleep)
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Eda Clawthorne & Luz Noceda, King & Luz Noceda, Luz Noceda & Everybody
Comments: 62
Kudos: 266





	1. The Beginning Of The End?

**Author's Note:**

> OKAY EVERYONE, STEVEN UNIVERSE PREPARED US FOR HIATUSES (hiatusi?), WE JUST HAVE TO MAKE IT TILL NEXT SEASON ; U ;

Luz was dying. She had to be if she was in this much pain, surely she was dying. But if she was dying, or if she was already dead, then did this pain mean she was being damned? Was she going to hell? She must have been, she must have done something horrible in her life to deserve this much pain, because if not then she didn’t know what else to think. She could barely think right now anyway. 

Maybe that was for the best, maybe the pain would go away if she just stopped thinking. Maybe it wouldn’t feel like her bones were growing and reshaping themselves, hollowing themselves out and making them lighter while her back burned hotter than any burn she’d ever gotten from touching a hot pan or pot in her mother’s kitchen and it felt like knives were carving their way out of her body. Maybe she wouldn’t feel every little prickle in her skin as something seemed to grow right out, wouldn’t feel her rounded ears grow longer and end in a pointed, although admittedly duller than the born and bred locals of the island, fashion. Luz could feel every single vein in her body scream in a way that made her want to shout at the top of her lungs (was she screaming? Is that why her throat hurt? Something was shrieking, but that couldn’t be her. It didn’t sound like her) as something seemed to flow and make its home in her veins, attaching itself to every single fiber of her being, of what she was made of, of who she was. 

Luz could hear everything and nothing at all, could barely process the pain in her head, much less the pain coursing through every single part of her body. It felt like something was stitching itself to her heart, growing like a parasite right alongside every other painful thing happening to her. Luz didn’t know when she dropped to her hands and knees, she only knew that she was there now as her kneecaps seemed to not want to exist the way she remembered them to and she ended up having to put her hands that seemed to cut her face on the ground to stay steady. A darkness was filling her mind, an anger and a fearfulness she had never felt before as she heard crisp steps ricochet off the walls of whatever room she was in. “Don’t you understand human?” The last word was practically spit at her, she could tell as the feelings overtook her mind and the sound of her heart beating filled her ears next to the distorted screaming. “You should have gone home when I told you to!” Before she knew it there was a new voice, separate from the ones shouting her name and the one that seemed to vocalize the hatred in their heart, if they had a heart to speak of. Luz wanted to find the voice's heart. 

Luz was still bent over, trying to fight the oncoming darkness trying to take over her very being but failing when she heard King’s voice shout out. “Leave Luz alone you big meanie!” He yelled and Luz looked over, seeing King charge towards Lilith only for her to kick him to the side. “Get away from here you sorry excuse of a demon! I’ve already transferred the curse from Eda! She is with her real family now!” King grunts in pain, hitting the wall and sinking to the floor with a pained grunt. Luz feels something deep burn inside of her, she can barely process the thought of “I’ve already transferred the curse from Eda!” as she realizes the shrill shrieking in the background is her and that she’s charging towards Lilith. Her only thought is that Lilith hurt her, Lilith hurt King, Lilith cursed Eda. 

It’s her turn to hurt. 

It’s her turn to suffer. 

It’s her turn to feel agony. 

Eda barely makes it over to get closer to the girl before Luz- no, not Luz. Before the owl has started tearing apart Lilith’s body. She shouldn’t be in control at all, and maybe she isn’t, but she’s there, Luz is bearing witness to her carnage simply because she is too stubborn to not try and fight. Luz is on autopilot, she knows what she’s doing, but has no control over it, and the knowledge is very vague. Like some kind of horrific daydream she doesn’t know how to stop. She can feel claws ripping through Lilith’s porcelain skin, can taste some metallic and thick liquid go down her throat and paint her body as sharp fangs and teeth rip out chunks from the powerful witch’s form. Luz yelled out words that only translated into shrieking and shrill screams as she tore into Lilith furiously. She hated Lilith. She yelled about how she would never hurt anyone Luz loves ever again. She yelled how she would no longer brainwash Amity. She yelled how she would no longer try and capture Eda or how she would ever curse her again. She yelled and screamed and ravaged the woman before becoming tired, slow, and coming to actual physical consciousness, backing away from her aftermath. 

She was horrified, appalled by what she had done. She looked over to Eda who was quickly applying a potion to Lilith. Her breathing evened out, no longer being a gurgle of the blood pouring out of her and filling her lungs and becoming more of a soft in and out of quiet breaths. “C’mon kid, she isn’t dead but we will be if we stick around any longer, we will be.” Eda yells to her, grabbing her staff and King while Owlbert perches himself on her shoulder. There’s no way he would be able to carry them all while Luz was in this form with her dark brown feathers and blood plastered body. Eda jumps onto Luz and holds on tight, telling her to jump on the platform where she was once trapped on. Luz looks up at her, tears welling up in her big eyes and Eda softens. 

“It’s okay kid, no one died and you were just trying to save me. Let’s get out of here, we’ll...we’ll talk more when we get home.” She says softly, patting Luz gently and giving her a knowing understanding look. She knew what it was like to hurt someone while in that form, knew what it was like to lose control. It had always been better for her because she hadn’t been in control however, but Luz was. Luz let that primal feral beast the curse brought out in her take over, and she fought to stay. Luz could see, taste, and feel everything that happened. Luz bounded over to the rising platform and growled as she got up and saw Kikimora who went to cast a spell only for Luz to jump over her and land on the contraption that was going to turn Eda to stone.

Luz looked over at all of the guards around her and growled before leaping off the giant machine, “Eda!” she yelled and Eda nodded before reaching into her hair and pulling out a vial of acid and throwing it onto the thing. The crowd below cheered as they all made their daring escape and hopefully put the dastardly way of death out of commision for a good long while- if not permanently. But Gus and Willow gasped as they saw the beast Eda rode on, both whispering a quiet “Luz,” before the girl in question disappeared behind the clouds and the emperor walked out onto the platform.


	2. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A soft bit of explanation and some much needed comfort

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long and its so short next chapter should be a lot longer, I'm trying to make update schedules for this and my other AU fic Knights Don't Leave At Dawn Princess (I have no shame in promoting myself and neither should you) but now they're gonna be getting regularly updated every week, be expecting new chapters every Sunday! Also for any updates on progress or warnings if a chapter won't be coming out on the date it is supposed to, check out my instagram Nyankittypug_thatficwriter, or don't it's up to you, have a good day

It’s a burning sensation going down her throat that wakes her up. The feeling of unforgiving fire and a tingling shiver to her body that makes her slowly open her eyes, staying still as she vaguely hears Eda telling her to finish her potion. She does as told, mainly because she has no idea what’s going on and Eda won’t let her up until she finishes drinking the painful thing. When she’s done she groans and wipes her mouth, groaning even more when her arm yells in protest at her in a language she likes to call “sore-aneese”. “Ugh, I haven’t felt this sore since I actually made the cheerleading team,” She grumbles, letting her arm drop and eyes close as she hears Eda snort, a sound that makes her flinch. “Not sure what a ‘cheerleading team’ is but yeah, you better stay still and take it easy while you get used to it for a little while, just until you adjust.” 

Luz nods and settles back into the comfy nest she now realizes she’s in. She’s overwhelmed with senses and emotions, like everything is clearer than it’s ever been but also just as foggy. She’s looking around the room when she realizes that it’s night outside and there are no lights in where she is. “Eda, why can I see in the dark?” She asks quietly, gripping her wrist with her opposite hand, a nervous tick she had had since she was in the fourth grade. It helped steady her a little bit, but the tick had worn off over the years and didn’t bring as much comfort as it had once before. “You know why Luz,” Eda says gently. She moves from the outside of the nest into it, stepping carefully and helping Luz up into a sitting position. 

“Go ahead, tell me everything you remember. I know you do, you’re too stubborn to stand up to bullies like my sister and the curse to have not been in partial control.” Eda says and Luz’s eyes well up with tears as she brings her knees to her chest and nods. She begins talking, croaking out all that she remembers. The taste of blood, the anger, the need to crush those that had hurt everyone around her, the need to protect her friends. But also the bloodlust, the  _ want _ to hurt Lilith, to make her suffer the same way she made Eda suffer for so long. She doesn’t talk for very long, but she doesn’t need to. Eda understands, and what very little she doesn’t, like the physical pain that attached itself to her heart or the feeling of something growing out of her chest, she asks for Luz to explain more. When she finishes Eda is nodding along with her.

She gives a little sigh, gently patting her apprentice on the shoulder. Luz is quaking, running a hand through her hair as she tries to slow down her breathing. She is okay. She is safe. She didn’t do anything wrong. No one is going to send her away. 

It takes a few moments for Luz to calm herself down again, but she gets there in her own time and Eda is patient. Anxiety was no stranger to the boiling aisles, however Eda wasn’t very knowledgeable on it but she still tried to make due. Luz had explained to her before how bad her anxiety could get, how she could have panic attacks and how for a very long period of her life she had suffered with depression. Luz had told her she had beat her depression, and Eda had believed her, but Eda knew the kid still had anxiety, no matter how much she beat it over the head with her cheerfulness and her go-getter attitude. 

Eda had grown attached to her pupil, she noticed the girl shaking, her lip trembling and the way her eyelids fluttered open and closed to blink out the tears that began to pool. The kid would be fine on her own after a little while, but some TLC wouldn’t hurt the process of getting there. Eda scooches over to Luz and wraps an arm around the girl’s shoulder, chuckling when Luz leans into her touch. “Listen kiddo, I know it seems like the end of the world right now. The portal wasn't destroyed during your fight or my capture, if you didn’t already know, but I don’t think you want to go home like that anyway. Don’t worry, we’ll find a way to cure your curse and send you back home.” She promises, giving Luz a lopsided smile. Luz nods, sniffling and wiping away at her eyes with the sleeve of her hoodie (she briefly wondered how it wasn't ripped to shreds during her transformation). 

“Eda?  _ How  _ did it happen?” Luz breaks the silence a few minutes later, she’s yawing and cuddling up against Eda’s side and feels the witch loosen up a little more to be a better cushion. “I think Lilith had found a way to transport the spell from me to someone else. She was going to give it to one of the guards or something but then she found you and accidentally gave you the curse instead. Magic can’t be destroyed, you know? Sure it can be dispelled, but it isn’t ever really destroyed. Curses are a part of that rule. You can dispel a curse by finding a cure or a different spell or maybe even another curse, and apparently if you are strong enough or have the right supplies you can move the curse from one being to another like what happened with you and me, but you can’t destroy a curse. It’s magic, it just becomes a part of the rest of the magic here.” Eda tries to explain, finding the words at awkward moments and she just knows that there’s probably ten people more prepared to be able to explain the properties of magic to Luz but the girl nods anyways. 

“Like a light spell?” She yawns out against Eda’s side and Eda smiles, turning her head to notice King walking into the room holding a small trash can lid with three mugs and bringing it into the nest with them. “Yeah kid, exactly like a light spell.” 

Any number of words could have described the last day or so, but there was only one word that came to Luz’s mind as she held a warm mug of tea as King and Owlbert joined her and Eda’s cuddle pile. 

_ Home _ . 

Luz was a monster, she had nearly killed Eda’s sister, she had almost gotten Eda killed, she had almost died countless times, and she had endangered her friends half of those times. But despite all of that, Eda and King and almost everyone around her still loved her and accepted her. She didn’t know how her friends were going to take it, and she didn’t think that she was even going to tell them, but at least she was home. A place that had never been on Earth despite how hard her mother had tried to make it there. 

Luz was  _ home _ , here in a dark room with a warm drink and the other inhabitants of their home. 

Luz closed her eyes and allowed everything to slip away while she fell asleep. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't mind all the updates I'm just finally getting around to double checking my chapters for information I accidentally included that was either false or brought up too early :)


	3. Homework, Curses, and Mean Teens, Oh My!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luz goes back to school and has a hell of a morning, maybe she should invest in a watch because it seems like things go by too fast for her to process now

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello yes I know this chapter is going to seem a little bit rushed and too quick (the quick part is once again partially on purpose) I was having problems with my phone this week so I couldn't write in my spare time and then I got onto Google Docs yesterday thinking I had already wrote the chapter and was wondering where it was and realized, no, I did not write the chapter, I wrote two chapters to the knight AU, but I promise I tried to give you the best content I could make in such a small amount of time, you can all yell at me in the comments I do indeed deserve it and if you ever want to see if I have updates on the stories I write such as this one then check out my instagram Nyankittypug_thatficwriter I actually posted on there me doing research and stuff for this chapter, anyways, criticize all you want, I deserve it lol, I hope this chapter is still enjoyable

Luz groggily opened her eyes as light filtered in from her window.

It was nice and quiet in the small space of her room, King was cuddled up next to her and sometime during the night she had turned and pulled him to rest against her stomach while she slept on her side. She had forgotten she left the window open as a slight wind gently blows through it and washes a warm breeze over her. Luz feels calm in this soft moment of serotonin filled awakeness. Too comfortable for anything to ever be wrong but somehow too asleep to ever be awake, a nice little muffle to her problems that makes her smile and fills her heart with warmth.

It wasn’t very long until she heard the rasp of knuckles against the wood of her door, said object creaking in defiance as it was slowly pushed open. “You up kid?” Eda asks, her voice an odd grunt as she takes a sip of her morning drink. “Yeah, yeah ‘m up.” Luz responds, yawning and stretching as she rises from the small nest she had made from blankets and pillows and random things she had found yesterday when she and Eda scavenged through a garbage monster. The blankets did not come from it thankfully.

Luz separated herself from King and stretched as she got up and walked down the stairs with her mentor. “You sure you want to go to school today? You could always wait a little longer, you’re still a little on the er,  _ sensitive  _ side.” Eda says as they round the corner into the kitchen. “Yeah, I know, but I don’t want to miss my classes, plus I have to apologize to Willow and Gus for not talking to them a few days ago, and to Amity for not even letting near the property.” Luz says, grimacing as she begins to sip on her very own potion. Luz hadn’t talked to any of her friends since the day of the field trip. She felt bad, but she knew she wasn’t ready to tell anyone about her curse just yet and she felt too guilty to talk to them too. Amity had tried to visit her, but Hooty didn’t let her near the property because Luz had partially transformed due to a bad dream and didn’t know how to turn back. She didn’t think a simple Google search would teach her how to control herself like how it taught her the basics of making edits. 

Eda looked at her and gave her a signature crooked smile, “Whatever you say kiddo, just remember, you’re always welcome to join The Bad Girl coven!” Luz laughed at her mentor’s antics, feeling the guilt and worry wash off her shoulders. “I’ll keep that in mind, but for now it’s just you.” Luz giggled, putting down the empty potion bottle and heading out of the kitchen to put on her uniform. “Don’t worry kid, I’ll keep a spot warm for you!” Eda yells out to her with a smirk, walking into the living room as King walks down the stairs and crawls up onto her chest where she plopped down on the couch. “It’s too early for school, make her stay home. Your king demands it.” He mumbles unhappily and Eda snorts, “You’re just mad because now she won’t give you her undivided attention again. You’re just gonna have to wait your turn like the rest of us.” The woman says, moving King over to the arm cushion of the couch as she sits up and tries to summon Owlbert to her side. 

“Ugh, where is that little rascal?” She questions before feeling a poke and sees Luz holding her staff. “No magic, remember?” Luz teases the older woman as she giggles and Eda ruffles her hair. “Yeah whatever, put your hood up, don’t want anyone seeing those ears of yours.” Luz groans, muttering how she finally got everyone to stop commenting on them, besides Boscha and her gang of bullies, and now she has to hide them again but pulls the hood up anyways. “Yeah, well, would you rather hide them or try to lie to the whole school?” Eda asks as they walk out of the house together. “Luz!” Both ladies stop and turn to look at the edge of the forest and see Gus, Willow, and Amity all standing and arguing with Hooty, Gus being the one to see Luz and call out to her. Eda hums in surprise and Luz clutches her hood, wishing it had strings like her hoodie so that she could pull it closed around her face. “Amity, you can’t fight them!” Willow says, trying to hold Amity back as the girl swings and tries to claw at the demon. “I’ve done it once and won, I  _ will  _ do it again!” She growls out, Luz is so stunned at the sight of her friends fighting to see her that she barely even hears Gus. 

“Luz! Luz, tell Hooty we’re allowed in! I think Amity is going to kill them!” 

Eda is doubled over laughing at the situation and Luz steps up, “Hooty, it’s okay, they’re allowed in.” “Well next time tell me, hoot hoot! My best friend has been trying to fight me for the last twenty minutes!” He says, coming over to wrap himself around Luz, a comfort of sorts she supposes, before sinking slowly back into the door. “I am  _ not  _ your best friend!” Amity yells and Willow lets go of her, sighing at the girl as she huffs before they both join Gus in making their way over to Luz. They hug her and Luz stiffens a little, before pushing aside her fears and pulling her friends closer. They both grunt at how strong she is as she hugs them and she squeaks as she lets go. “I’m sorry, um I guess I don’t know my own strength!” She laughs nervously and Eda pats her shoulder as the children step away a little bit. 

Something is different, of course Willow and Gus have their suspicions, but Amity wasn’t at the ceremony. She didn’t get a proper look at the creature that saved the Owl Lady. “Luz where have you been? We all tried coming here to talk to you but we weren’t let in.” Amity asks, it’s best to get straight to the point. But she feels her heart break at the flash of fear that crosses over the other girl’s eyes, the look of a scared animal, cornered and injured. “The portal that would allow Luz to go home was destroyed, not to mention we both almost died. She needed a few days to herself,” Eda intervenes and kies effortlessly for her, giving the thankful girl a wink. Willow gasps and apologizes and Gus asks if Luz is okay and Amity rubs the back of her neck. “I um, we could read later today at the library if that would make you feel better,” an offer that makes Luz smile brightly, the idea of Azura Book Club was more than welcomed at the moment. “Anyways, you should all be on your way or else you’ll be late, Owlbert can’t carry all of us.” Eda says, Owlbert hooting in agreement as he nuzzles her chin. “Why don’t you just teleport us there Ms. Owl Lady?” Gus asks and Eda scoffs, “Because I’m tired that's why, just because I escaped,” “You mean King and I rescued you,” Luz interjects teasingly, “yes but not important, doesn’t mean that I’m just going to be one hundred percent good again. Now shut up and hop along, or would you rather be late?” Nevertheless, all the children started making their way through the woods. 

They’d been walking for about ten minutes, Willow and Gus telling her what all she missed while she was holed up in the Owl House and Amity reassuring her that her foot had fully healed. “Wow, can’t believe the emperor spun the rescue to make him look better.” Luz says, she was glad she got a whack at him when she did. It had happened right before she had found where Eda was. The girl had fought the mysterious person and had managed to escape from him using a lot of previously prepared explosion and ice glyphs as a form of a distraction for a daring escape, and had found Eda right after that, had gotten cursed and rescued her mentor and the woman’s palisman. She had even managed to snag a bit of his chipped mask as a souvenir too, which was cool. 

“Yeah, you didn’t happen to see him while you were rescuing her did you?” Willow asks, bringing her hand up to her face as it took on a worried expression. “Yeah, it was scary, but I managed to crack his mask. His eyes look weird.” Luz says, once again checking her hoodie to mask sure it covered her ears. She’s surprised to hear and see her companions give her wide eyed looks and gasps. “You mean you actually hit him?” Gus yells, “Luz do you know how big of a deal that is?” Willow questions. “No? I mean, he was kinda tough to hit and I don’t really...remember much, but I bet plenty of people could take him down, I only landed one hit, and that was before I even got c-” Luz stopped speaking immediately, running her hands nervously down her arms as she gives an awkward laugh. “Before I even got close to finding the room they were keeping Eda captured.” She covers up her blunder, much to the notice of Willow and Gus. “It’s a really big deal, I’ve never heard of a person who has ever even gotten close to hitting the emperor, my parents would have told me. Well, they would have forced me to become better than them, but still! That’s a really big accomplishment Luz.” Amity says, she looks surprised but she gives Luz a smile. Luz bumps her shoulder into Amity’s “Thanks Amity, I guess I’m stronger than I thought.” Everyone starts laughing as Luz starts to flex, pulling up her sleeves to show off her “muscles” and making funny poses. The group of four all come out of the woods laughing, Luz pulling her sleeves back down with a smile, and all make their way to the stairs. Standing outside was Principle Bump, who surprisingly had Owlbert on his shoulder, a piece of paper in the adults hand. “Owlbert, when did you get here?” Luz asks as the little wooden owl flies over to her and perches on her shoulder. 

“Eda’s palisman arrived a few minutes before you, your mentor informed me of your situation, of course I was at the execution ceremony so I can understand your um, legal situation.” Bump explains, lying partially about what he meant by her legal situation but Luz understands what he’s getting at. “Your teachers have been informed and so have the rest of the staff, you’re safe and welcomed to continue schooling here,” The older man says, an understanding smile crossing his face. “T-thank you sir, I appreciate it a lot,” Luz says, tearing up as she softly scritches Owlbert’s head and chin. “Guess I should send you back her way huh? Don’t worry, I’ll be okay, you go make sure she doesn’t get into too much fun while I’m here,” Luz says softly and watches as Owlbert coos before flying back to his witch. 

“Eda sure is lucky to have a palisman,” Gus says as the small group walks into the school, all heading to their lockers, and Luz can’t help but go a little wide eyed as she notices people are staring at her but grabs her wrist and takes a deep breath. “Owlbert is really cool, I bet everyone has really cool palismen.” Luz says with a smile. “Actually no, not very many people have palismen, sure they sometimes have staffs, but palismen have been pretty uncommon since Emperor Belos set up his reign since they are a type of old magic.” Amity explains and Luz feels an ember start inside her. “I can’t believe he gets to pick and choose who all gets to do certain magic! Magic is  _ free _ and  _ ever changing  _ it’s not always bad!” Luz protests and everyone agrees with her. “But, on the bright side, at least most people are happy. If they weren’t then there would be outrage and we’d have a civil war on our hands.” Willow, ever the voice of reason, speaks up and Luz feels her ember smother out. 

“Ye-yeah, I guess you’re right,” Luz says, she’s uncomfortable with all of the eyes watching her, like they’re waiting for her to do something. But they don’t know, only Eda and King and Hooty know. Luz is safe, she’s okay. She pulls her hood forward a little more as the four friends start to walk to their classes. They all separate at some point, Willow going first to the gardens, Gus next as they pass his illusion track (Edric and Emira Blight waving at her and tease Amity from the inside of their class) and Amity last, leaving with a promise to meet up in their last class and go to the town library together after school. 

Luz makes it through two classes, which is a pretty good accomplishment if she does say so herself, ignoring the looks and the whispering of other students and those pitiful looks she receives from the teachers. Like she has a disease and she’s on her deathbed, like they feel so sorry for her. Luz hates it, she hates it during the first class when she has no friends around and she gets assigned a three page essay on a subject she could barely pay attention to, she hates it during the second class when the teacher leaves and the students all start talking too loudly over themselves. Some whispering and some yelling and some talking normally, it hurt her ears and made her want to scream. Which she did. Right as the teacher walked back in she couldn’t take it anymore, she stood up, her chair falling back from the force as she screamed “Shut up!” with her hands clenched over her ears, the hood stopping her from touching them. She knew she was probably overreacting, but she didn’t care. It hurt and it was stressful and a lot of noise already made her nervous before but now she kept wanting to jump to the rafters at the top of the classroom for safety. She still ended up getting homework, and getting stared at even more, and now her nails were claws and she could feel the prickles of feathers straining against the fabric on her shoulders and upper arms and shoulder blades keeping them from puffing up. 

It’s no wonder Eda didn’t come back, it was quite literally hell. But Luz continued on to the third period after privately apologizing to the teacher and turning down their offer of giving them a pass from the next period. Luz was irritated and scared as she walked down the hallway, keeping her eyes forward as students started backing away from her. All of them had grown up in Bones Burrow, where you don’t poke sleeping and angry animals unless you are absolutely sure you know you can get away, or if you’re stupid. And despite knowing the human was usually a pacifist they could feel the danger she was giving off, her knuckles clenched around her books (she was glad they could hide the claws she now adorned), the set look of her jaw and shoulders, the hard warning look in her eyes. That look of “Don’t even think about it,” while somehow conveying the message “Come near me, I dare you.” 

Well, at least no one who didn’t have an absolute escape, or were just plain stupid. “Hey human, I heard you snapped during class.” Boscha’s voice carries down the hall but Luz doesn’t stop walking. “What’s wrong round ears,” Luz would laugh if she wasn’t getting more and more ticked off by the second, her fear being replaced by the growling slow prowl of a beast inside of her, “too much noise for the soft little human?” Boscha was a few feet behind her now. “Hey human, round ears. I know you aren’t ignoring me. Come on, say something, or are you too scared?” Boscha continues and the other students start coming closer and begin to block Luz’s path of escape. 

Luz wants nothing more than to just go somewhere quiet and dark, but the more Boscha keeps talking the more appealing it seems to stand her ground. Luz knows the curse affects her emotions, so she tries to tune them out. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, trying to ignore the rush of anger and injustice flooding through her body. Hadn’t she been through enough already? Luz shivered as instincts began rolling through her and she involuntarily tried to puff out her feathers. Everything was too quick.

Willow and Gus enter the hallway as students form a pretty firm barrier behind Boscha. The girl is getting angry now too, “Come  _ on _ , say something back you stupid human-” She puts a hand on Luz’s shoulder and has a brief moment to wonder why it feels so lumpy and weird before she’s on the floor with a now bleeding nose and Luz standing over her, broken skin on her knuckles and completely wide eyed. Everyone gasps and Willow and Gus stand surprised, having fought against the crowd to make it to the front the moment they heard someone mention Luz was with Boscha. Luz can’t help it, she looks at the ground, stares hard at it and shakes her head no. She doesn’t want to fight, she’s sure she’s telling the other girl that, but she will if she has to.

“Luz!” Willow yelled and tried to run towards her, but she was pushed back by Boscha, “Get out of here half-a-witch! This doesn’t involve you.” The three eyed girl barks out, wiping the blood from her nose and staring at it in disgust. “You’re gonna regret that,” She says and Luz hardens, messing with her was one thing, but nobody put their hands on her friends, Luz was squinting and stood tall. Boscha was a bully, Luz was going to teach her a lesson. All indecisiveness left her as she was overtaken by instincts. 

Luz had never been in a fist fight, well one that she had fought back and won, and certainly not one that she had ever initiated. But as she stood there, bringing her arms up and puffing up as much as she could, she was going hyperactive. She could feel the draft in the hallway and knew someone must have opened a window down the hall. The draft was to Boscha’s back and Luz could feel the way it parted when Boscha moved. She could see the strength in the other girl’s stance and mixed it with her own. She made herself seem bigger, rolling her shoulders and trying to make them stick out a little while she leaned down just the tiniest bit. Luz would have been at a severe disadvantage if this had happened just a few days prior, Boscha was captain of the gradgby team and she was a weak nerd who could carry her friend. But now she would bet that she had the advantage. She found herself wishing she was in the air, that she could pulverize Boscha if only she was in the air, but Luz was human at birth and forced herself to keep her feet firmly planted on the ground. She waited, watching every single movement Boscha made as she also waited for the other girl to throw the next punch. 

Boscha broke and took a swing, Luz ducked under her arm, grabbed her back and brought her stomach down as she pushed her knee hard into the girl’s stomach and swiftly pulled her back up to punch her again. This time she busted Boscha’s lip, but now the air was to her back. She’d have to pay extra attention now, as short as the air current advantage was, it was a welcomed and much needed one. Boscha wheeled back to try and elbow her but Luz quickly stepped to the side, leaving her heels up as she weaved in and out of Boscha’s hits. “Just. Stop. Moving!” The girl screamed out, making the mistake of closing her eyes. Luz struck, taking this moment of frustrated weakness to her advantage. With a cold hard precision she was unused to, she brought both of her fists down onto the back of Boscha’s neck, the girl crumpling to her knees with a pained cry before Luz brought the bottom of her foot into the bully’s side. Boscha curled in on herself, holding her torso and groaning, but Luz wasn’t done. 

She bent down and grabbed the girl by her jersey collar, forcing her back up on her feet and bringing her inches from her face. Luz knew she was going too far, she was too angry, but she set Boscha with a stone cold glare. “If I see you put your hands on  _ any  _ of my friends again you’ll see how much noise is too much for me,” Luz threw the girl down onto the floor, taking into account the serious look of fear she had upon looking Luz in the eyes. Luz hoped they hadn’t changed, and squinted as hard as she could to keep others from seeing them. “Walk away Boscha,” a different voice broke the stunned silence. Luz turned and saw Amity (oh god had she seen all of that? When did she get here?), her face was masked but Luz could see the fear in her eyes. She turned to look at Willow who was trying to help Boscha up, apologizing to her profusely. Boscha slapped her hand away and pushed herself back as Luz surged forward only to stop as Amity and Gus stepped in front of her. “Luz don’t you think that’s enough?” Gus asked and his eyes flickered down to Luz’s wrist. She shoved her wrists under her arms as she crossed them in an attempt to hide the feathers there. She felt scared and her legs were barely holding her up. Whatever anger that had kept her fighting was leaving her. 

“I-I gotta go,” She said, she knew that if she stood here any longer she’d start sobbing. 

Luz walked away, letting her feet take her where they pleased rather than her eyes. Everything had happened so quickly, she could barely register what had happened. It was just like with Lilith, but this time she didn’t almost kill anyone thankfully. She just needed calm, just some quiet. Someplace high up, remote, where no one could bother her. She had buried her face in her hood, bringing her collar up to hide her mouth where she felt fangs replace her teeth. 

She walked through the halls, dodging other students and trying to not be able to be followed before noticing a familiar door. Luz weaved in between students, opening and slipping into one of the secret passage ways the detention track kids had told her about right as she heard her friends calling her name. She shut the door behind her and looked around. No one was here. 

Luz slid down the door until she was sitting on the floor. Everything was so scary. She took a deep breath in, counted to four and let it go. Luz reached into her satchel bag, glad that she had been smart enough to put her books in there after punching Boscha the first time. With shaking hands she brought out a pencil and a leather bound notebook. Eda had given it to her a few weeks after she had arrived and she’d written as much about everything in it as she could. “It happened, just a few minutes ago,” she started with shaking breaths, sounding the words out as she wrote them. 

“I don’t remember everything, just like when I hurt- no, when I nearly killed Lilith. I can’t change what I do remember. Anyways, I didn’t fully transform, just parts, like feathers. I’m glad I wore a tank top underneath my uniform today, the uniform is pinning them down and they’re all ruffled so it's really uncomfortable. I’ll pull it off when I get finished writing. Um, my teeth did it too, but I think my nails were the first. Okay, it all started because people were staring at me, I was stressed and it felt like I was having a hard time breathing, like with my panic attacks. Then everyone was being loud in class and I yelled at them and that was when the claws replaced my nails and feathers started sprouting from my shoulders, they’ve spread to my wrists now but at least I can breath.” 

Luz takes a moment to punctuate the line with a deep breath. In and out, close your eyes and think of what happened. You need every detail. “My teeth turned to fangs when Boscha and I got into a fight. That was when the instincts started taking over. Wait, no they were in second period too. I wanted to hide in the rafters of the classroom. Then I um, I wanted to fight Boscha in the air. She was picking on me, and then she grabbed my shoulder while I was trying to walk away and I don’t remember deciding to punch her but I did. We started fighting and I used the wind to help me for a little while, I don’t know.” 

Luz kept writing, she was so tired, but she wanted to get everything down. It had all happened so fast, she didn’t know how to control it, but maybe if she recorded everything it would help. Eventually she fell asleep with the journal clutched to her chest, too tired to move away from the door and too embarrassed by her actions to go to class. She was perfectly fine to sit here for a little while. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for all the updates, just fact checking and doing a little bit of spell checking


	4. Secrets Kept and Secrets Told

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aftermath of the fight (also more ooc Luz [insert sarcastic yay here] I hate writing cold Luz but please bear with me while she's ooc, it shouldn't happen often and I really really try not to write it but I think I write her out of character more often than not, I'm working on it please bear with me)

Luz wakes up groaning, her senses becoming too overwhelmed for a moment like they did every time she woke up now. She stretches, pushing out her legs and arms as far as they could go while she arched her back. She’s met with a satisfying feeling and a yawn escaping her before she stays sprawled out on the floor. Her feathers feel weird though, some staying the way they should be and some getting shoved in awkward angles. She sighs in frustration as she tries to shift her shoulders and back to get more comfortable but ends up sitting up, rubbing her eyes as she does so. She had been hoping they would go away while she slept, but that was a lost hope for today apparently. 

She opens them blearily, wiping away the little bits of tears that pop up from yawning too hard before going still. “Hey there Luz,” he says and Luz releases the breath she had begun to hold as King steps closer. Luz gives him a shy smile, blind to the fact that her teeth were mostly fangs and her eyes were rimmed with gold, black mixing with the magical color and her natural brown. Two beasts were looking through her eyes, herself, and that curse that had taken root in her body and refused to leave. King came over and sat on her lap though when she outstretched her arms, bringing his hand up to bap her face and giggle when she laughs in surprise. 

“Eda sent me and Owlbert to find you, the kids I taught here when I was a teacher for a day told me about this place and I had the brilliant idea to check here,” he claims, sticking his head up and crossing his arms in superiority as Owlbert lands on Luz’s shoulder for a second time that day and nuzzles her jaw. “Thanks King,” She says quietly, holding him close and gently scratching Owlbert under the chin. 

“Was anyone else here before you?” Luz asks and King pulls away, looking down worriedly. “Yeah, they’re with Eda and Bumps though, don’t worry, Eda will scare them off!” He exclaims confidently and Luz giggles as she pushes down the ever growing fear that's rising from her stomach and trying to choke her. She stands up and puts King on the ground and gives Owlbert to him. “Here, let me just grab my stuff and then we can take one of these doors there.” She says and bends over to pick up her folded upper uniform (weird, she didn’t fold it when she took it off?) and books. She holds her satchel by its straps, depositing her upper uniform before taking King’s little hand and walking up the staircase. They peek through a few doors before finally finding one that went to Bump’s office. 

They walk right in, King not caring and Luz too tired and anxious to do anything else. She started giving off that aura again the moment she saw three students standing in front of Bump’s desk and Eda standing off to the side. Eda gives her a little nod and Bump’s eyes flicker over to her. He was apparently explaining something to them, but Luz didn’t care. She was pissed. “Take a good long look.” She says, her voice is concrete and her eyes are like a wild cat’s. Once you look at them, don’t look away. Jerbo, Viney, and Barkus all turn to look at her. 

Jerbo gulps and Barkus whimpers, but Viney is the one who holds Luz’s stare. She’s their leader, she’s the one Luz will have to convince, or put down. Viney recognizes that. “I was just explaining to them what happened to yo-” Bump starts but Eda looks at him and shakes her head. This is predatory, Luz isn’t entirely Luz, Eda can see her eyes, her feathers standing up and her claws staying close to her torso, the muscles in her arms tense, ready for the need to be put to use. Eda’s surprised Luz didn’t scratch that other girl’s eyes out during the fight. 

“What do you want to know?” She demands, despite it being a question. “How did it happen,” Viney asks and Luz holds her ground. “While I was rescuing Eda from Belos’s hands.” Viney chews on that for a moment and Jerbo steps up. “Have you hurt someone before today?” “I nearly killed Lilith Clawthorne,” Luz doesn’t say what she wants to say, the way she ripped open Lilith’s gut and picked through her organs, or how even after that how she slit her throat and for a moment, a brief moment, Luz relished in the feeling of superiority. Of being at the top of the food chain. A pride inside her that was not hers bloomed in her chest, but she stamped it out just as quickly in fear of it and herself. 

The other students stare at her with wide eyes. “Can you control it?” Viney asks, she hadn’t broken eye contact and she could see the fear and hurt and discomfort and the sadness, the painful recognition that flashes across Luz’s eyes as she softens for a minute. “No, no I can’t control it. I can try to hold it back, but other than that I don’t have ‘control’.” Luz says and the others feel a little less tense as they see Luz bring her arms up and crosses them, staring sadly at the floor. “Did you mean to get into a fight with Boscha?” Viney asks after sharing a look with her friends. 

“No, I was trying to walk away, I swear! And then she grabbed my shoulder and I didn’t know what was happening and suddenly I had punched her,” Luz exclaims fearfully. She didn’t want her friends to think she was a monster. Viney and Jerbo nod and then they both nod with Barkus before they all step forward. “Okay, we won’t tell anyone and if you ever flip out again you can keep using the door room,” Viney says, putting a hand on Luz’s feathered shoulder as they sink back down as Luz calms down. She blinks away some tears and accepts the hug they all come over to her to give. “Thanks guys, you don’t know how much this means to me.” She says and they all nod and laugh with her. When they step back they all look at her with kind smiles and leave when Principle Bump tells them to, making sure to tell Boscha and her mother to wait five more minutes before entering the room. “Listen, Boscha’s mother is sitting out there right now with her daughter. She’s going to come in here and she’s going to have me try and expel Luz at the least, the fact that you are human, whether you have a curse that changes your physical attributes at times doesn’t change the fact you were born a human and most in this building believe you to be one,” he turns away from Luz to look at Eda who comes over and drapes an arm over her student’s shoulder, “along with being your student will not help her either Eda.”

“We know Bumps, just tell us the game plan.” She says and he nods, standing up and making his way over to Luz. He puts a hand on her shoulder, “Do you think you can keep a grip on it?” He asks her seriously. Luz nods, her eyebrows furrowing with determination. “Good, put your uniform back on, I won’t lie, this is going to be a long afternoon.” Bump sighs and takes his seat back behind his desk. The moment Eda and Luz sit down, Luz with her hood up and King sitting in her lap, Boscha’s mother storms in. She comes in with her mouth open, no doubt ready to argue her way into the room, but closes it and composes herself as Bump invites her and Boscha to both take a seat in the chairs to the right. Luz sits on the far left next to the window with Eda beside her, separating her off from the furious glare Boscha sends her way as she’s sat between her mother and Eda. 

“Mrs. Riegel,” Bump says courteously and Boscha’s mother gives him a deadpan look. “Bump, I believe you know why we are all here,” She says coldly with an expectant look in her eye, ignoring the amused/irritated snort Eda makes. “Well yes but-” he goes on to say but gets cut off, “Good, then you should know my daughter is innocent and was brutally attacked and humiliated in front of her peers,” the woman goes on to state and plows through Eda’s “ ‘Brutally attacked’?” as she tries to rise to the defence of her pupil while Boscha’s mother straightens up even more and places a hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “Boscha was simply trying to make conversation with the human and she turned around and punched her in the face and  _ continued to attack her unprovoked _ ,” she says, her voice growing more insistent, as if she could change Bump’s memory of anything that he had been told about the situation. 

“Well actually Mrs. Riegel, we have several eyewitnesses who all clearly saw and stated to me that Miss Noceda’s actions were provoked by constant taunts and your daughter even going as far to grab her-” Mrs. Riegel sets a glare upon Bump and says in a high and mighty voice, “Are you accusing my daughter of not only starting a fight but  _ assaulting  _ another student? Isn’t it bad enough she was beaten,” (“I wasn’t beaten by the human!” “Shut up Boscha the adults are talking”) “and embarrassed herself in front of a dozen people, but that you would accuse her of starting it all? If I wasn’t so generous I would press charges and tip off the emperor, we happen to be friends you know-” at this Luz snorts and Boscha’s mother whips around to look at her. 

“And what is so funny about me being friends with the emperor?” Eda snickers as she leans her chair back to balance on its legs, muttering about how this was about to get good. “Tip off the emperor, if you haven’t forgotten my mentor was kidnapped by him last week and I broke into his castle, rescued her, defeated the leader of his coven, and beat him. Tip him off, press charges, unless you wish to fight me yourself then go ahead.” Luz says without looking the woman’s way. Bump gives Boscha’s mother a nervous smile, raising his hands in an “I don’t know” gesture before she turns to look back at Luz. “There's no way you could have done such a thing,” Luz pulls out the piece of his mask and Eda cackles. “As for this morning, your daughter happens to be a bully of mine. I had just left potions class and there had been an incident in my class where a student named Barkus,” who had indeed been in her class that previous morning, “accidentally spilled a potion on me.”

Luz turns and looks at the woman, not bothering to try and cover her eyes or fangs. “I was trying to hide and get away because I didn’t want them to get in trouble, but your daughter started the fight. And then she pushed my friend, who she’s been bullying for years, and I stood up for her. Now, you can use your three eyes to see the olive branch being handed out to you right now, or you make our day even worse.” Eda howls with laughter and King blows a raspberry Boscha’s mother’s way and Luz stands her ground, her stomach tumbling with nerves and the feeling of needing to apologize. 

She had always been forced to apologize to the other kids in her other schools back on Earth, she was surprised now was any different. She half expected her mother to burst through the door cursing in Spanish, her words becoming a blur to anyone who wasn’t fluent in both english and Spanish as her words melted together while she simultaneously apologized for whatever Luz had done, attempt to defend Luz for all of thirty seconds, and get Luz to apologize. But Luz’s mother couldn’t have been there in the Boiling Isles. 

Luz’s mom wasn’t there to put a hand on her cheek and kiss her forehead when she cried. Luz’s mom wasn’t there to give her a hug after Luz woke up from a nightmare. Luz’s mom didn’t even know her daughter was trapped in an alternate dimension, maybe possibly never getting the chance to come home. Luz’s mind ran wild with that thought, of the different scenarios her brain could run on such short notice about what would happen to her mother when she didn’t arrive home. Would she wait by the bus stop even after the bus left? Would she place a missing person report? Would she cry? Would she go to drinking like Luz’s father had done all those years ago? 

Would Camila care? 

Luz hadn’t even realized she had been staring out the window, blocking out the rest of the argument or conversation or whatever had transpired after she had said her little bit of monologue that made her realize just how much she was changing and made her even more scared, until Eda put a hand on her shoulder and kneeled down to her level. “You okay kid?” her voice was soft, gentle, and made Luz push away her thoughts. “Yeah, just thinking about home. What’s going on?” She asks, the edge from her voice gone and her mouth feeling normal, her teeth must have un-fang-afied or something. “Well, considering Boscha here started the fight, she will be staying after school to clean the potions classroom for the rest of the week. You will be sent home until the effects of the potion have worn off. I’ll assign someone to collect and bring you the homework you will be missing.” Bump says. Luz nods and lets everything around her happen on its own. Eda sweeps her away out of the door and outside as she sees her apprentice shrink n on herself. 

She doesn’t say anything until they’re outside though, getting on her staff and rising off the ground. “Are you sure you’re okay kid? That didn’t seem like you back there.” She comments, putting her arm around Luz’s shoulder as the wind flows past them smoothly and the sun sets. 

“No, no I’m not okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh-oh ending on sad dialogue? Oo0Oh WhAt'Ll hAPpeN nExT? I really don't know how to feel about this chapter lol I I rewrote it twice, nearly deleted everything to restart it, and then didn't know where to end it, but I think ending it write there is a good point to leave off on, y'all tell me if chapters need to be longer or shorter or if I should go back over this chapter because Luz is getting reaaaally OOC whenever it comes to her curse which is expected yeah, its supposed to make her more violent while she tussles with it in the beginning, plus she's meant to have mental health issues so yeah just tell me if I ever write a really sucky chapter because I promise I have at least six other ideas for every chapter I write and how it could go or not go and how that would or would not affect the plot and what not, anyways I gotta go procrastinate going to bed and work on some other Lumity AU fics that'll be coming out soon on here so yeah, goodnight everyone


	5. Calm Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sad vibes and warm memories
> 
> Also check the note please :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OI I MADE A MISTAKE and said that the portal was broken, it isn't. I'm preparing to go from updating two stories weekly to five maybe six if someone answers me back on a different one and got some stuff mixed up, so I'm going back to sort it all out, I'm 99 percent sure it is only that in this story that I messed up but I'm going to be rereading all the chapters so far to make sure I didn't get anything else wrong, I am very sorry for the inconvenience, once again, the portal ISN'T destroyed, they lied to Luz's friends and said it was but it was not, have a nice day :) 
> 
> ALSO THANK YOU FOR ALL OF THE COMMENTS AND LIKES IT ALWAYS BRINGS A SMILE ON MY FACE WHEN I PICK UP MY PHONE AND SEE THAT SOMEBODY COMMENTED OR LIKED MY WORK

Luz stares at the ground, so many miles down under her. The sunset paints her back in oranges and reds and pinks and passes past her making her glow as Eda looks down at the girl. King sits in Eda’s lap, staying oddly quiet as emotions fill the air. The older woman sighs and Luz glances her way. 

“Of course you aren’t okay kid, Titan, I’d be scared if you  _ were  _ okay.” She says, her right hand fingers are drumming against the wood in an attempt to hide her nervousness from Luz, but she can probably hear it anyway. “You’ve been through a lot, kid. More than anyone should go through, and that’s coming from someone who’s also been through a lot. Nobody that’s sane and knows what’s happened is putting you at fault.” She says, moving a hand to Luz’s shoulder. 

Luz nods and cups her hands together, studying the little lines and odd calluses and scars from that time one of the snakes she used to have bit her as she tries to think what she should say. Her tongue is heavy in her mouth and her throat feels swollen, but at least she isn’t as angry any more. She mostly feels tired. She’s so tired, she wishes she could just go to sleep. Her mind drifts to when she’d stay up late trying to greet her mother after she worked a long shift at the hospital. 

She could remember sitting all night on their old couch with the familiar coffee stains and scratches, the way it creaked and groaned when she landed on it after throwing herself onto it. Her mother always got on to her for doing that, but Luz knew she did the same thing every time she had a rough day. Luz remembered coming out to her mother on that couch, when her mom had walked in on her talking loudly about some cute girls that were bullying her. 

They both realized she was depressed on that couch, curled up tight in a little ball in the corner as she cried, far too into her own head to realize her mom had walked into the door and she wasn’t alone anymore. She hadn’t realized she had anxiety on that couch, but it did help her through some tough panic attacks. She watched bad book-to-movie adaptations, and cool cartoons, and all different types of anime on that couch. 

“I still shouldn’t have fought Boscha.” She manages to say, the thought of the old beat up couch giving her enough courage to speak. Eda gives her a look and Luz curls in on herself ( _ she said the wrong thing, of course she said the wrong thing, she always says the wrong thing _ ), “Who told you that?” Eda asks, and when Luz doesn’t answer she tells her to look at her. 

She has to say it twice but when Luz does look at her she repeats her question. “N-no one, no one told me.” Luz says, her voice quiet and soft. She flinches as Eda ruffles her hair, not out of fear, simply from surprise. Eda laughs and keeps her hand there, giving Luz a toothy smile. Her teeth stayed as partial fangs even after the curse was taken away from her, which had caused Luz to wonder if it was a witch thing, an Eda thing, or a souvenir from the curse to always make Eda remember it bye. “See here kid, in my eyes you did the right thing. You stood up for yourself and for those you care about, and then continued to do so even when you thought you were in trouble. I’m proud of you,” Eda keeps her smile, infecting Luz with her carefree nature. All three of them nearly fall off of Owlbert when Luz scoots forward and traps King and Eda in a hug, she’s crying. She doesn’t know whether she’s crying because she’s happy, or because she’s sad or because of both. All she knows is she laughs when Eda says, “Sheesh kid, always you and the water works huh?” 

Eda doesn’t push her away though and when they make it back to the Owl House she lets Luz go straight to her room. She goes up there alone, turning around midway as she pulls her uniform off and falls into her little nest of blankets and pillows and all things comfy and feels her phone buzz right as she gives out a long sigh. She digs out her phone from the pocket in her uniform, glad she only has to roll over and reach rather than get up. She already knows who it is that’s texting her, her mother is the only person that texts her. 

**Mami: Hola mija, I helped a crazy lady today who had snakes hidden in her beanie, she got them all over the waiting room and called herself Medusa, she was crazy, I think you two would have either been best friends or worst enemies**

Luz laughs and rolls back over, her back pressed against the little wall of her nest. She brings a hand up to her face to wipe away her tears but never lets it drop. The feeling of the light pressure of her fingertips against her lip and above it is comforting somehow, she can’t explain it and she doesn’t know why, but it is. Maybe it’s the comforting warmth of room, or the feeling of her fingertips, or the hope and understanding that had filled her chest after the whole sky encounter with Eda, but Luz finds herself typing faster than she ever has before. She types out everything she can, from her awful day and the fight ( _ I had a panic attack and a girl kept picking on me _ ), to Eda sticking up for her and then later telling her she was okay for not feeling okay ( _ there’s a really cool councilor named Eda that I’ve told you about who helped me _ ). Luz hates lying to her mother, and she refuses to think about the next two months ( _ she can’t go back in this state, what would her mother think, what if she lost control in the human world, what would happen if she hurt someone, what if someone found out, she can’t go back, she can never go back, noone wants her there, her mother sent her away, she doesn’t want her- _ ), but in that moment it feels good to type everything out, even if she does have to alter a lot of it.

**Mami: Oh mija, I’m so so sorry you had a bad day, I oughta come down there and beat that Boscha girl with my chancla if she thinks she can just pick on you like that and get away with it. I’m glad you’re making friends, but you really shouldn’t keep wild animals!**

Luz snickers, she had told her mom she had found an injured owl in the woods and was nursing it back to health, and that so far Eda and the detention track kids had found out about it. 

**Mami: I told you you’d have fun at that camp though, I’m happy you’re giving it a chance mija, maybe take some of your medication for your anxiety? You have been taking it daily right?**

Luz scratches the back of her neck, she  _ hadn't _ taken her medication, not daily anyway. Every day was a new adventure and she had kept forgetting, she still carried it around in her bag, but she had forgotten about it today,  _ which was reasonable _ , she thought to herself. Luz looked over, straining to reach her bag but just barely being able to grab the strap, still not wanting to leave her comfy place. She has to dig through her bag but ends up pulling out a ziploc bag. She nods, a grateful sigh leaving her body as she pulls the plastic bag with her into the nest. She had been told she didn’t have to take it daily, but she could as a safety measure. She wasn’t a very good creature of daily habit however and forgot to take it a lot, so it was no surprise to Camilia when she received a text from her daughter stating she had not been taking her medicine daily. 

Luz and her mother talked for another hour or so, the older woman wishing her daughter goodnight and telling her that she loved her, which Luz reciprocated before letting her phone fall next to the bag with the pills. Eda stayed leaned against the doorframe for another five minutes, listening to make sure that Luz was asleep before slowly shutting the door with a smile. Eda didn’t know Luz’s mother, but from what she’d heard about her and how Luz seemed to be able to fall asleep so quickly after talking to her ( _ and Bumps told her she could never figure out context clue _ , she thought snarkily) made her think that she truly loved her daughter and was trying her best. 

Eda fell down into her nest, exhausted from the entire day. Sleep comes easy to her as she pulls Owlbert close and hears the pitter patter of King’s feet and the sound of a door squealing open and Eda knows he’s gone to cuddle with Luz. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow, she’ll have to teach Luz a new spell. However in the name of the titan she’s supposed to do that without magic. 


	6. Gotta Love the Rain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part one of Luz's first day of suspension

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GUYS I AM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG TO UPDATE
> 
> Okay so here's what happened, this is entirely and completely my fault and my fault alone and I take responsibility for it, I went out on Friday and met a new friend and had forgotten that I had yet to actually write this chapter because it was a hectic week full of anxiety and anger and just bad stuffs all around and then when I got home my voice was W R E C K E D and it still is three days later (actually just got quarantined for the next eight days and will miss overseeing one of my track team's tryouts cause of it) and then my sister's birthday party happened on Saturday so I couldn't work on it during the day and my friends came to it but I wouldn't have been able to work on it afterward because that new friend stayed the night with me on Saturday and didn't go home until nearly two in the afternoon and I fell asleep right after she went home and then Monday I didn't post it because it was a day to celebrate indigenous people and I wasn't going to post anything to respect them and I had a lot of geometry homework (so much so it took me from nearly three or four hours to finish it) and I didn't realize I hadn't even written the damned thing until I realized I had so much work and wouldn't be finished any time soon so here it is, two days late, I hope you all enjoy it

Luz groaned, rubbing her eyes as Eda put a cup of warm tea in her hands and told her to pay attention. “Okay kid, listen here, I’m gonna teach you how to make a bubble shield to protect us from boiling rain.” Eda said, she left out the fact that it would rain later, it was early and the kid hadn’t even fully woken up yet and it would be unnecessary pressure. That and she didn’t want to, she was tired too. “Eda, how are you going to teach me? You don't,” the sentence gets broken off as Luz yawns, “have magic?” She brought one hand to rub at her eyes before bringing it to rub circles on her chest. It didn’t ache, but it did feel strange. It had every morning since the curse had taken root inside of her, but that was fine, her body would settle in a little bit.

“Yes well, to be fair, I didn’t think about it. And if you can’t then I guess we’ll have to stack tarps or something over Hooty. He doesn’t like rain,” she explains and Hooty loudly yells something about his stoop while Luz squints. “I like the rain,” she mumbles tiredly, taking a sip of her tea and sighing at the nicety of it not trying to kill her.  _ I haven’t had enough of that lately _ , she thinks to herself with a smirk. 

“Okay, well let’s get started I guess, new spells! This is gonna be fun!” She says, pumping herself up, King joining her chanting from inside the house as he leans out an open window while his cartoons play in the living room. Eda snorts and rustles Luz’s hair, “Yeah yeah kid, ‘greatest witch,’ just remember who you’re learning from,” Eda says and Luz giggles and nods. “Now, watch a real witch cast a spell,” Eda says and turns around, raising her hand and planting her feet, closing her eyes and performing the motions she knows by heart. Wind flows dramatically past her, making her hair flow with it as the sun peaks over the house and bathes her front in glowing light. 

Only for Luz to say, “Eda you can’t do magic any more,” and for the woman in question to deflate, a hand coming up to rub her chin as the other places itself on her hip. “Fiddlesticks, alright well that does put a chip in my plan but sure, I guess I can teach you the motions and hope you get it I guess. Maybe that’s how glyph magic works? Bah, whatever, c’mere kid, we’re gonna teach you or die trying! Cause, we will die eventually if you don’t learn this spell,” Eda says, turning to look at her student.

Luz gulps and places her cup on Hooty’s helpful head (try saying that three times fast) before stepping forward and puffing her chest out. “I’m ready to learn!” Eda chuckles and walks around her in a circle. “Alright well first you need to plant your feet,” she starts to move them with her own, “in case your spell has a kick to it. You should have been doing this with all of your spells, but I’ll leave you be for now since you use a different type of magic I guess.”

Eda brings her hands up to pull Luz’s shoulders back, pushing them to get her to crouch a little more, and then pulling her arms out a little before putting her hands back in front of her. “Now this will be uncomfortable, but it’s just precautionary. To be fair you don’t have a bike sack so you probably don’t even have a chance of learning this spell but well, kudos for effort I guess.” 

Luz smiles up at her, watching as Eda takes the same position beside her, and starts to mimic the movements the older lady makes. The first time Luz loses balance and falls over, King laughs at her from the stoop, and Eda tells her to take the position again. The second time Luz and Eda bump into one another and whatever should have happened did, in fact, not happen.

The second time turns to the tenth, and that turns to fifteenth, and before they know it they’ve been out there for nearly three hours, Eda had given up around the hour mark and had just stayed outside to support Luz but was now napping in her nest, and Luz was slowly transforming more and more with how impatient and angry she was getting. 

“I don’t get it! Why can’t I just do this one stupid spell? What happened to the island teaching me spells? C’mon island! I’m here and I’m not even human anymore! Just help me do this stupid spell!” She yells out, turning in a circle as she yells at the ground and the sky and the woods. When they don’t answer she settles for scrunching up, pulling her shoulders and arms close as her hands ball into fists as she crouches down before exploding in a fit of pent up frustration and anger, kicking her legs and pushing her arms out as she yells.

King and Hooty share a worried look before he puts his juice box down and walks over to where Luz is stomping and spinning, her yells becoming growls and grunts as her vocal cords change. “Uh Luz? You um, doing  _ okay  _ over there?” King asks after Luz drops to the ground sitting cross legged and crossing her arms, glaring at the ground. 

He comes around her side, sitting next to her as she grumbles something that should have been words but couldn’t be strung together to form them. King nods along though, getting the gist from her body language and huffy attitude. “So you’re just going to give up then?” He asks hesitantly, turning to look up at her. She puffs out her cheeks and tries to stay looking away, but she loses that game the moment she peaks over at him, seeing him leaning forward with his eyes downcast. She sighs and shakes her head, pushing herself up off the ground. She begins to form those incoherent sentences of growls and grumbles (“ _ I’ll just have to keep trying, just like the Good Witch Azura! _ ”) as she looks determinedly in front of her. King scrambles up as well and shouts “Yeah! No stupid spell is going to get the best of  _ my  _ boo-boo buddy!” Luz turns to him and they high five before she turns around and begins trying the stance again.

She plants her feet in the ground, the delightful  _ shhhk  _ noise of sliding them against the dirt and rocks sending serotonin to her brain. She lowers herself a little and keeps both hands in front of her, arms bent like she’s going to punch someone and fists clenched like she’s going to mean it. She takes a deep breath in (“ _ I got this! I can do this! _ ” “You can do this Luz! Make the sky cry and then don’t let it touch our house!”) through her nose before closing her eyes and slowing down. She lets everything wash away, King’s encouraging voice, Hooty talking to the juice box on the stoop, the smell of wet earth and bad weather. She let it all fall away (of course it didn’t actually but it felt more cinematic to her and it was her mind anyway so who cared?) as she focused on what she wanted to do. She opens her eyes as she feels the lull of the purr of the owl and the pull of pure determination and willpower. It almost feels as if she’s being praised as she opens her eyes, takes a step forward, and yells while moving her hands in the positions Eda showed her. 

Nothing happens. 

She probably should have expected that, but she still groans in frustration anyways. She plops back down on the ground, complaining in the gruff growls and rumbles. “Yeah that seemed about right,” King says with a shrug, walking away as Luz curls in on herself. She was so  _ sure  _ she felt something, like she was so  _ close _ , all she had to do was reach  _ just a little further _ . Luz sighed, pushing herself up off the ground and patting down her shorts and leggings before going to walk into the house, Eda standing in the doorway. How long had she been there? Luz thought awkwardly as she walked past with fangs and feathers and claws. “Didn’t work huh?” Eda asked and Luz nodded lamely. She opened her mouth to speak but Eda held her hand up. “I’m not even going to pretend like I’ll be able to understand you right now, King told me you’re vocal cords are all messed up and twisty turvy trying to figure out if they’re gonna go completely beast right now or not. It’ll be okay kid, we’ll figure something else out.” 

Luz nods and plops down on the couch with King while he watches cartoons on the crystal. Eda disappears upstairs and Luz covers her eyes with an arm. She’s sitting there for maybe ten or twenty minutes, the feathers going away and her vocal cords returning to normal. She finds out after King had left the living room and brought her a juice box before crawling into her lap and forcing her to sit with him and calm down as they watched mindlessly. It’s nice and comfortable, and Luz half-tricks herself into thinking she's home on her couch and she vaguely thinks she should probably take her meds moments before there's a knock on the door. She and King share a look and he rolls his eyes as she hides her head in her hoodie. 

He opens the door and Amity and Bump walk in. “Hey Luz- why are you hiding?” Amity asks and Luz squeaks. Bump puts a hand on Amity’s shoulder, “Eda has been trying to teach her how to cast a barrier spell, she’s probably tired from studying all day and we must have startled her.” Luz bobs her head up and down in confirmation before asking, “How did you know?” 

“I sent Owlbert with a message to tell him,” Eda says, “Never thought I’d say this, but thanks Bumpsy, teaching a human magic is more difficult than we thought.” Bump nods along, “Any how, I’m here to cast a barrier spell before the rain starts and Miss Blight here has your homework.” Amity looks a bit awkward as she avoids eye contact. They hadn’t spoken since she had seen Luz fight Boscha. Since she had seen Luz beat someone up and threaten them. She didn't think any less of her, Boscha had deserved it, but it was still surprising to see the sweet Luz she had always seen try to avoid fighting when it came to people only for her to have a complete one-eighty at school no less. 

Amity wasn’t scared, but she was nervous, and it didn’t help that her stomach fluttered at the sight of Luz all curled up on the couch with King returning to her lap and wrapping her arms around him as he continued on with his afternoon. Needless to say Luz buried her lower face behind King’s skull, an adorable thing to Amity that made her cheeks redden slightly, but a defensive maneuver for Luz. Her teeth were no longer entirely fangs, but some still ended in shorter fang-like points. This might cause some trouble. 


	7. Spells and Cuddles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luz and Amity being soft and studious

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OI IT TOOK OVER 12 THOUSAND WORDS BUT HERE'S SOME LUMITY HAVE FUN BUY GOLD ALSO WOW SORRY REALIZED IT WAS MONDAY MORNING FOR SOME PEOPLE ITS ONLY ELEVEN PM FOR ME IM SORRY

Eda and Bump walk out of the house bickering, what they were bickering about Luz did not know, leaving the girls alone as King slips out of Luz’s grasp to get a snack from the kitchen. “Willow and Gus say ‘hi’, they wanted to come and see you but they had to go home before the rain started,” Amity says and Luz nods, scooting over and patting the spot on the couch next to her. Amity fiddles with the corner of a loose paper and bites her lip, coming over and sitting on the couch. Luz chuckles at the other girl’s perfect posture, making Amity blush in embarrassment. “What? Do I have something on me?” She asks awkwardly, suddenly mortified at the thought of showing up to Luz’s house looking like a mess. “No, no you just- you can relax,” Luz says and points at Amity’s back. “Oh,” Amity says as Luz giggles and turns to have her back against the arm of the couch. 

Amity moves to match her, setting the papers down on the coffee table before doing so. Luz stifles the last of her giggles with her fist. “So, what’s the word on the street?” She asks and Amity raises an eyebrow. “What do you mean?” She asks and watches as she sees the gears turn in Luz’s head. “You mean out of all of the phrases and metaphors you have, ‘what’s the word on the street’ ISN’T one of the ones that cross over between our worlds?” She asks, sitting up in surprise and causing her hood to come loose a little bit, no longer hiding in her hood. “I guess?” Amity says and Luz looks dumbfounded. “Okay okay okay, hold up,” She holds her hands up and plops back down, sitting with the bottoms of her feet touching one another as she holds them and leans forward, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration. 

“I’m going to say words and sentences and if you know them say it or nod,” She says, clearly a woman on a mission as Amity nods. “Burning the candle at both ends,” Luz says and Amity nods, “Yeah that’s burnout,” Amity comments and Luz nods in return. “Four-eyes,” Luz says, and Amity blushes and scratches her neck awkwardly, “Y-yeah we have that too,” she used to call Willow that with Boscha. “An arm and a leg,” Amity has the vague memory of someone going into a shop in town and coming back out with missing limbs and talking excitedly to the person next to them while holding their desired purchase and grimaces but nods. Luz’s eyes are wide and round and Amity can’t help but smile and get giggly at the different phrases and words Luz asks for confirmation. 

They get more and more comfortable as Luz gets more and more half-jokingly frustrated, moving from sitting across from one another to beside each other, to now with Luz’s head resting on Amity’s chest as she lays between the girl’s legs on her back. She talks animatedly, her mother used to tease her for ‘talking with her hands’ and it would be no different if she was in the room currently as Luz weaves entire stories with her vivid motions, and looks up at Amity who nods and laughs or shakes her head and asks about different words and turns of phrases. “Okay what about sus?” Luz asks and positions herself a little further up while Amity pulls her closer unconsciously. 

They’d been effectively cuddling for a good twenty minutes or so, getting off topic a handful of times but somehow continuously coming back to trading phrases and words. Amity smiles and raises an eyebrow, “That’s short for suspicious, obviously.” Luz smiles at her and brings a hand to her chin as she closes her eyes in thought. “I can’t think of anything else,” She says after a second of silence and Amity takes the time to study the girl in her arms. Their legs were entangled and Amity held Luz in her arms with her chin resting on the top of Luz’s head. Her arms were wrapped comfortingly around Luz’s torso and she couldn’t help but blush at the moment, “What did you do today?” Amity asks and Luz’s smile turns into a small frown. “Eda tried to teach me a spell but I couldn’t get the hang of it no matter how hard I tried,” Luz says and Amity gives her a surprised look. “Well yeah, you two perform two different types of magic, I would be surprised if you got it on your very first try.” Amity says and Luz falters. She knew she performed glyph magic, and the only times she learned spells were when she saw glyphs. So, in theory, if she could find the spell’s glyph then she could cast it!

Luz jumps up, scrambling to get off the couch as she snatches up some paper and a pencil and makes sure her phone is in her back pocket. Amity stares wide eyed at the space between her arms before chasing after Luz. “Where are you going?” she calls out after the other girl as she stomps over to Bump. “To learn a spell!” she yells over her shoulder and Amity stares confusingly. “Hey Principal Bump!” She yells out, catching the man's attention. He turns from Eda, “Yes Luz?” Luz stops and sits right in front of the man, pulling out her phone and getting ready to press the record button. “Do the spell,” she says. “What?” he asks and Amity stands behind her, shrugging as the two adults turn to look at her. 

“Do the spell that protects the house,” Luz repeats herself. Bump turns to Eda who shrugs in response. “Okay,” He says and raises his hands, “Do, do you want me to talk about it?” He asks and she shakes her head no, watching intently as he finishes the spell. “Okay thank you!” She yells when he finishes and runs back into the house, Amity sputtering in confusion before sighing and following her, catching a little bit of Eda and Bump’s conversation as she slips back into the living house (“Luz has been trying to learn that spell all day,” “No luck then?” “No not at all, she kind of _ poofed out _ earlier, King said she couldn’t even talk”). She loses Luz (ironic, she knows) but King walks out of the kitchen and points at the stairs while he moves to the couch. She ends up tracing her hand against the wall as she walks down the hall, peeking into open doors before finally stopping outside of Luz’s. 

The door creaks as she gently pushes it open, peeking her head in to see that Luz has propped her phone against her window as she stands in a giant...is- is that a nest? Okay, so Luz made a nest. Amity’s traitorous mind gives her thoughts of more cuddling and how comfy and plush it looks despite being a giant mishmash of soft things. Luz watches it intently, her notepad and pen ready in her hand as the video plays on a loop. “Come on, come on, magic! Come on, you appeared for the light spell, just appear for this one too!” Luz mutters under her breath, growing ever more impatient as the video plays on repeat, only showing Bump’s magic, but no glyph. Amity crosses the threshold of the room, reaching a hand out to put on Luz’s shoulder. 

Luz jumps and sighs when Amity comes to stand next to her. “Hey, it’s okay. Why don’t you take a break?” She offers and Luz sighs in defeat as they both freeze when they hear the front door open and close as the pitter patter of rainfall begins. “I missed it. I didn’t learn it in time,” Luz’s body shakes and she turns to Amity with tears in her eyes. 


	8. Luz? Having Panic Attacks? Never!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey this does have a panic attack at the beginning (there's markings to show when it's over!) but this entire chapter isn't only a panic attack so I hope you still read it, have a good one and sorry this took so long to update lol its nearly midnight for me!

_ Trigger warning for a panic attack, it won't be for the entirety of the chapter though and I'll put three bold asterisks (those little star doodads) to show when it's over for those who want to read the chapter but don't want to read Luz having a panic attack :) _

Amity watched as Luz’s breath started to quicken, going from shallow and quick to desperate and deep as she gasped for air, her hands disappearing into her hood as she grips her head. Amity is surprised to see Luz like this, she had never known Luz might go through this, she was always so happy and carefree and goofy. “Luz? Luz what’s happening? Look, Principal Bump probably put up a shield, Eda can teach you tomorrow, it’s okay.” She says, taking a step forward. She had had something similar to this happen to her before, a lot actually, so maybe she could help Luz through it. “N-no,” the word is more of a giant breath shoved out of her diaphragm and forced out of her as she shuts her eyes. She shakes her head slowly, she was going to be okay, she was going to be okay, she was going to be okay. Amity took a step forward and Luz flinched, taking three steps back. “Luz, it’s okay, it’s just me.” She says, a pang of hurt pinging in her heart but she hopes it doesn’t show on her face and takes another step forward. 

“Luz, it’s okay, you aren’t too late,” She says softly and Luz shakes her head “no” violently. “No, no it’s not okay. It won’t be okay. I c-can’t go ho-home and I can’t protect anyone and Eda can’t teach me spells, it’s not okay and it won’t be.” Luz chokes on her words and forces away the thoughts of her mother. She can’t bear to think about her right now, not while Amity is here in the room-  _ Amity is in the room _ . Luz’s eyes fly open and flicker around the room for an escape, settling on the door behind her friend. She grips her hands in front of her, wringing them and looking nervously between Amity and the door. She feels flighty, a complete one-eighty from how she felt when she was fighting Boscha. Adrenaline and anxiety fills her veins like lead as Amity takes another step forward, her hands outstretched a little, and Luz’s heart rate picks up. It feels like she’s being cornered, like something in front of her is about to pounce on her and kill her, but it’s Amity in front of her, and Amity isn’t going to hurt her. That doesn’t stop the growl that resonates from her when Amity gently touches Luz’s forearms, Luz’s teeth baring as the fangs return and her eyes change for a flickering second. 

Amity blinks and looks at Luz in surprise as the girl covers her mouth, tears streaming down her face, and shakes her head some more. She pushes past Amity, sprinting out of the room and down the stairs as Amity chases after her and calls her name. It’s the completely wrong thing for her to do, chasing after Luz who runs as fast as she can, alternating from running on two legs to all fours as she partially transforms and slides into the living room, scrambling to hide under the couch as she wraps her wings around herself, sobbing and hiccuping from the strain of trying to keep quiet. Her wings are too small to provide much comfort so as she lays on her side she brings her knees up to her chest and covers her ears as best as she can, they’re too long though so she ends up gripping them to block out the noise of Amity’s footsteps and everyone yelling and someone's claws clicking and clacking against the floor. Somewhere in the back of her mind she knows its King, but right then, right now, it was something chasing her down, something hunting her. She whimpered in fear, failing to stay silent as Eda and Bump tried to get Amity to leave the room and King began attempting to crawl under the coach, the horn on his skull making it difficult. “Listen kid I’m gonna need you to leave the room.” Eda says and Bump backs her up, but Amity is trying to get past them. “No, no I have to help Luz, Luz is my friend. She’s scared, she needs someone right there to calm her down.” Amity says and Eda stops her, grabbing her roughly and leaning down to look her in the eyes. “Listen, I’m telling you right now, to back up. Luz is having a panic attack. She has these sometimes, she just needs some space. Sometimes having friends around helps her, but listen,” Amity stops struggling and looks over to the couch where Luz struggles to breathe and keep quiet underneath. “This isn’t one of those times,” Amity says slowly and Eda nods at her. “Okay.” She gives in after a moment of hesitation, chewing on her lip as Bump leads her up the stairs, she gives one last look over her shoulder before letting herself be led out of the situation. 

“King, stop clawing up my floors.” Eda says, turning around and plopping herself down on the floor next to him. “Luz? Come on out, no one’s gonna hurt you.” Luz whimpers and scoots even further away and Eda sighs. King moves away as Eda moves to lay on the floor, her hand reaching underneath the couch to grab her prodigy. It takes her a few moments of swiping, but she finally grabs hold of Luz’s hoodie, only for Luz to growl and bite Eda. “Ow! Sheesh kid!” Luz begins to fully hyperventilate as she presses her back against the wall and yells that she’s sorry. “You’re okay Luz, just come out. You have medicine for this right? You aren’t in trouble.” Luz shakes her head, she shouldn’t come out, she can’t come out, she doesn’t want to come out. The couch is safe, couches have always been safe, as strange as that may seem. Luz closes her eyes shut tight and curls in on herself, blocking everything and everyone out. 

*******

When it becomes clear that Luz isn’t coming out from underneath the couch Eda sighs and walks up the stairs, telling King not to bother the girl who had gone silent a few minutes ago. “What if she died?” He asks and Eda waves him away. “Either she calmed down and is too embarrassed to come out, or she wore herself out and fell asleep, either way she’s going to be okay, we just need to be quiet. I’ll be right back.” Eda may have sounded a little cruel or uncaring, which was far from the truth, she was actually very worried but didn’t want King to get worked up as well. She would make some tea for the three of them later, even though she knew Luz probably wouldn’t be out for a while to drink it before it grows cold. Eda wasn’t wrong though, Luz had fallen asleep. After some time being under the familiar object Luz had calmed down enough for exhaustion to take over, lulling her into the safety that whatever had been hunting her had moved on.  _ She was safe in a cave _ , that’s what the beast made her feel. 

_ She was never not safe _ , is what she was able to remind herself. The small cramped space had helped her calm down. Being able to know what was around her and what could get to her, along with the lack of light (despite practically having night vision now, which was pretty dope in her opinion) really helped her force herself to look around and realize nothing was coming for her. Biting Eda had made her realize quick enough she needed to breathe and look around, that she needed to focus. She hadn’t broken Eda’s skin thankfully, so it probably just hurt a little rather than being bitten by a rabid animal. Now Eda was asleep on the couch, King curled up against one of the arms. Bump had taken Amity and left hours ago, both teleporting to Blight manor before he went home. Luz was the only one awake now in the late hours of the night as the rain had slowed down to a small drizzle. 

Luz looked around, listening closely to double check that everyone was still sleeping before slowly crawling out from underneath the couch, leaving her hiding place. She stretches her legs and arms in front of her like a cat before shaking her body like a dog trying to dry itself off. She wasn’t fully transformed, just enough that she was forced to walk on all fours as she snuck out of the front door to sit on Hooty’s stoop. The moment she sat outside she immediately felt ten times better, the fresh air helping steady her mind and the warm breeze that blew past her helping center herself. Soon she was sitting with her arms behind her and her legs straight out, no longer transformed at all. She felt better, exhausted and drained, but better. 

She owed Amity an apology, but that could wait till tomorrow, if she still wanted to bring Luz’s homework that is. Luz closed her eyes and listened to the rain hitting the Bump’s shield. It wasn’t as strong as Eda’s though, and Luz could tell as she opened her eyes and looked over at the stone tower connected to the house. She had never actually been up there, but now she could see that the shield was going in and out in a spot over there. “Shoot,” She said quietly, slipping back into the house and making her way over to the stairs. She stepped up them quietly, wincing when one creaked and hoping it hadn’t woke anybody up, but continued on her way, trying to find the entrance to the dilapidated old tower. It was cool looking, Luz is surprised she had never tried exploring it before. Well, she was going to explore it now, maybe she would find an old chest full of treasure? Or what about the bones of one of Eda’s exs? 

Maybe she’d get up there and she’d find Eda’s diary? That would be funny, and would be the second diary she had accidentally gotten her hands on. Luz grins as she opens an older wooden door with a round top rather than a square one, revealing a stone spiral staircase. She feels a flash of excitement grip her heart as she starts making her way up the stairs, excitedly trying to go as fast as she can. The stones are cold against her bare feet and it sends a shiver up her body, but she ignores it and goes higher and higher. She reaches the top quickly and lets out a small gasp at how pretty the view is. An eager smile breaks onto her face as she rushes over to a part of the wall and leans against it, staring out as far as she can see. Stars peek through the clouds and wink at her, boiling rain coming down lazily and tapping against the shield and ground. 

Luz breathes the smell of wet dirt deep in and sighs as she looks around happily, a big smile on her face. She still feels jittery and nervous but she shoves it aside as she turns around, still leaning against the wall and looks back up, noticing the “glitch” in her principal’s shield. Some rain drops down and she walks over to it and crouches down, squinting at the little droplets of water. Luz gasps and looks around, her eyes wide as she looks back down. She slowly stands up, unknowingly holding her breath as she holds her hands out, making a circular motion with one finger and tracing the lines inside it with the other until in front of her is a small blue shield. “Wha- did, did I just do magic? I can do magic? I can do magic! I can do magic!  _ ¡Puedo hacer magia! _ ” Luz jumped up and down, the spell disappearing as she brought her hands to her head to repeat herself in English and Spanish in different volumes.

“I’ve gotta tell Eda!” She finally says with a big gasp before sprinting down the stairs, taking them three at a time before slamming the door open and doing the same with the stairs in the house. “Eda! Eda!” Luz yells the entire time, tripping on the last step and scrambling over to the couch where Eda jumps awake. “What? We aren’t being attacked are we? Is everything okay? I’d say you calmed down but you clearly haven’t, what’s going on? Whose butt do I need to kick?” Eda rubs her eye as Luz shakes her by the shoulders. “No one is attacking but-” Luz begins and Eda yawns, mumbling out “Good, come join the cuddle pile, we saved you some room.” Eda pulls Luz into the pile, King making “Meh,” sounds as he crawled over to lay on top of Eda as she layed on top of Luz, Owlbert landing on Luz’s head.    
  


“Guys- You don’t understand- I did magic!” She exclaims, trying and failing to get herself free. “Yeah kid we know, paper magic and stuff. Now hush, it’s cuddle time. Let the ancient art of soothing cuddles mellow you out.” Luz grunts with effort before finally managing to get her arms free, which doesn’t do her much good but hey, it’s a start. Freedom shall be hers! 

“You don’t get it! I did magic! Real magic! Witchy magic! With the hand movements and the little light, I didn’t even need to use the stance!” Luz yells and Eda pushes her face into the cushions where she continues to yell before being let go. Eda and King are watching her now, Owlbert moving to hide away in Edalyn’s hair. “Look, I’ll show you!” Luz yells and shoves her arms out over the arm of the couch before mimicking the movements. 

“Was something supposed to happen?” King asks and Luz looks back at them. “I  _ know  _ I did it, I know I did.” She says, glaring at her hands. She’s tired but she tries a few more times, even getting loose from the cuddle pile magic and trying in front of them while standing up, to the point that King and Eda share a look before Eda gives Luz a grin. “You trying to con us kid? Learning magic without me? What good am I if you learned another spell without me?” Luz looks up at her before looking down at her hands, she’s more than a little disappointed, and twice that much when it comes to confusion, but there’s hope in her heart. She cast a spell, a real spell, like Amity and Eda do. That was all her, no one else. The island had given her the glyph, sure, but she had cast the spell. There was that dull discomfort in her chest again, but she sighed, a little downcast over not being able to prove her newfound discovery to her family, but hopeful, and a lot happier than she had been. 

“Is the cuddle pile still open?” She asks after a moment of disappointment, hesitation, and thoughts of the newfound research topic. Eda and King both share a look, opening the blanket with their arms for Luz as she comes over and plops down between them, gratefully accepting the hug they give her. “Luz look, we saved some tea for you!” King exclaims and Luz “awwws” before picking the cup up and taking a big drink of the beverage. “Bleh cold tea, gross. Thanks guys, and I’m sorry for everything that’s happened today. I need to start taking my meds daily again.” She chuckles and sets the cup down before falling asleep in their arms. She’s loved, she’s safe, and she did magic. She could do this. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for a panic attack, it won't be for the entirety of the chapter though and I'll put three bold asterisks (thos little star doodads) to show when it's over for those who want to read the chapter but don't want to read Luz having a panic attack :)


	9. Apologies and The Promise of...ADVENTURE?????

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day two of being suspended, awkwardness ensues, but what could that be on the horizon? Do I dare say....ADVENTURE????

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, Okay so quick rundown for everyone who didn't see my explanation and apology as to why I didn't post last week on the instagram (Nyankittypug_thatficwriter all updates for stories will be up there btw) basically a hurricane clipped my town, the majority of the power was off (about half a week for me, I was one of the longest places to not get power restored which I'm still salty about cause our electric company in town is trash and I'm willing to set loose those funny fuzzy worms on strings guys upon their building but I digress) so I wasn't able to work on any of the stories or post anything but luckily power was restored on Tuesday (which feels like a billion years ago if I'm being honest) and everything should be returning to updating regularly (again check out the insta if I don't put up a chapter, the explanation should be up there, plus you'll get to see the occasional videos/pictures of the different animals in and around my household lol) Anyways thank you all so much for your patience, have a great day, enjoy the chapter and have mercy on me when it comes to spelling/grammar I'm tired and didn't actually have this finished when I thought I did and was having a hard time writing it so I'm sorry for it coming out late

“Eda! Luz won’t share any of her special candy with me!” King calls out from the kitchen as Eda walks into the room only to stop and snort in amusement at her pupil’s and demon roommate's predicament. “I’ve told you ten times King, my medication isn’t candy and you can’t have any!” Luz yells, hoisting a clear plastic pouch filled with small little pills over her head as she stands on the island counter with King hitting her legs. “Likely story!” He shouts in defiance and begins to attempt to climb the girl. “King stop it, you’re gonna make us fall!” She yells as he quickly scrambles up and begins batting at her face while reaching out with his little arm. “Share your candy or I’ll have my army destroy you pathetic human!” He screeches before letting out a battlecry and making his way onto her head, finally throwing them off balance while Eda laughs and snorts and hits her knee in amusement. When the children fall she scrambles to try and catch them, but is beaten to it by a spell being cast on them, causing them to freeze in place. Eda looks over to the entrance of the kitchen to see Bump. “Edalynn, why is it that whenever I seem to see you and the young human together, she is usually in immediate danger?” He asks dryly, but there is no malice to his words.

Eda crosses her arms and rolls her eyes. “Don’t blame it on me, I may get into my fair share of scraps on my own, but I swear humans must be bad luck or something,” Her words are teasing and Luz would stick her tongue out at the woman had she not been floating a foot off the ground. “This is great and everything, but I’d appreciate it if you dropped my kids please, I’ve got a lot of trash to sort through and she needs to start on her homework so I don’t have to help her later.” Bump rolls his eyes at the woman’s laziness and drops the spell with a little twirl of his finger, following her out of the room for the moment. Amity walks in a few seconds later, an annoyed look on her face and Luz’s papers and pre-written notes in her satchel. She stops immediately as she sees Luz and King rolling around on the ground, still fighting over the medication. “Why do you still want this, you know it’s not candy!” Luz yells and King grunts. “Because it’s small like me!” 

The bag skids out of their hands and stops at Amity’s feet. “Amity, join my side, together we can protect my medicinal cylinders and conquer King!” Luz yells, pushing King’s face as he does the same, both play fighting at this point and wanting the star student to join their antics as King tells her she’ll have the glory of working as his underling if she gives him the bag. “Why are you two fighting over this?” She asks, curiously picking up the bag and turning it over to read the writing on the bag. She reads the label and cocks an eyebrow. She knew about panic attacks and anxiety of course, and she knew that Luz was having a panic attack yesterday (granted Bump had to explain it to her that the potion she had been told that had been spilled on Luz made the panic attack seem a lot different than any of the panic attacks she could have read about or seen people have) but she hadn’t expected for Luz to be taking “anxiety medicine”. 

“Dork,” She mutters as she notices that Luz and King get lost in play fighting again. _I’ll just go put this up in her room I guess_ , she thinks to herself and walks into the livingroom, setting the books and papers on the coffee table before making her way up to Luz’s room. The door creaks open and she smiles at the sight of the mess. There’s glyphs and papers everywhere, some clothing strewn around and a book peeking out from underneath one of the pillows. Amity walks over to the mess of comfortable cloths and fabrics and pulls it out, smiling at the sight of the Azura book. That’s right, they had never got to have their Azura Book Club meeting after Luz got suspended. Amity chuckled at the thought of asking Luz if maybe she’d want to have it right then, or maybe some other time during the week. “Why would she want to hang out with me? I made her panic attack really bad yesterday,” She mutters to herself and sighs. “But this isn’t about you Amity, Luz has homework to do. Even if she does look really cute when she smiles. And how adorable she is when she talks out loud while figuring out her homework. And how wonderful it was when we were cuddling yesterday. Were we cuddling? Would that be considered cuddling? I mean I know she was laying on me and I was holding her but- Oh my Titan. We were cuddling.” Amity’s face goes bright red as she purses her lips and her eyes go wide at the realization that she had been cuddling her crush and _hadn’t even realized_ _it_. 

“Stupid stupid stupid!” She yells and sighs heavily into her hands. “What’s stupid?” Luz’s voice comes from behind her and Amity yelps in surprise, “Luz what are you doing here? I mean, obviously this is your room! The room in which you stay in! The room we are both currently in! I’m going to stop talking now.” Luz smiles and laughs, causing Amity’s heart to flutter. 

Luz had wrestled with King a little bit more before the demonic monarch claimed he was missing an important war council and ran off to gather his stuffed animal army, leaving Luz to head off and find her other friend and walking in on the girl’s monologue.

Amity is so embarrassed, she can never show her face around Luz again, why did she have to go brain dead whenever she was around her? 

Luz looks at her book being gently cradled in Amity’s arms and sees her medication sitting neatly on the windowsill and smiles. “Thanks for bringing my stuff up here,” she says and Amity nods, still red beyond a doubt. An awkwardness that could only be created by two messes fills the air as one has guilt eating away at their stomach and the other tries to stop thinking about how cute and funny and sweet and clumsy her crush is, of course you wouldn’t hear that from the Blight herself, oh no no no you would definitely never. 

“Hey, I um, I wanted to apologize for yesterday. If I- If I scared you I’m sorry.” Luz is the first to speak, she’s nervous about scaring her friend away, but that’s okay. She texted her mom this morning and asked for advice on how to keep her nervousness from overloading and her mom had helped her and given her advice. She hadn’t taken her anxiety meds yet but she’ll be fine, she told herself. She’s all good, it’s just Amity, Amity will understand. 

“Why would you scare me?” Amity asks, “I um, I turned into a monster remember?” Luz says quietly, avoiding eye contact. She was steadying her breathing, she was going to be okay. “Oh, yeah, that was pretty weird,” Amity winces at her wording as she sees Luz’s face fall a little, “But it’s okay, it was just the potion. You aren’t a very scary person.” She says and Luz snorts, “Are you sure? I think I scared the pants off of Grom,” Amity rolls her eyes and smirks. “Grom didn’t even wear pants Luz.” 

“But if it did then they’d definitely have been scared off.” Amity laughs and shakes her head as Luz begins to make “scary” faces. “I think that potion addled your brain Luz.” Luz gasps overdramatically. “You dare offend me like this? Begone witchling! Unless you wish to fight me over such a dishonorable thing to say to I, Luzura the Horrifying!” Amity crosses her arms and sticks her chin in the air, silliness filling her heart and making her barely able to keep a smile off of her face (which she fails at doing anyways). 

“I shall fight you then human, we shall duel at dawn, and until then I will help you study.” Amity answers back, not taking on the silly serious voice Luz had begun to use, but still wording her sentence rather sillily. “Are there any new spells?” Luz asks excitedly, she would try to show off what she had done last night if it was not for the fact that she had tried to cast it again and failed. She still wrote down the glyph though, no sense in wasting a spell because she was bummed about maybe not being able to cast it like a Boiling Isles witch. Maybe it was all a dream and she had just seen the glyph when she was sleeping? Or maybe it was all real and she was just secretly a witch all along with ear birth defects? Or what about- “No, no new spells, plenty of history homework you have to do though.” Amity smirks when Luz groans and faints dramatically, turning around and falling against Amity. “But I am too weak and tired to do homework, do take mercy on a pitiful human oh wise star student.” She says and Amity blushes but giggles, making Luz smile. 

“Come on Luz, we barely worked on your homework together yesterday. I’m only being allowed to come over here because my parents think it’s some extracurricular activity.” She laughs and an idea pops into Luz’s head. She was currently wearing her hoodie up on her head, but it was starting to get annoying and she had a feeling people would start questioning her about her hood if she kept wearing it up. She would need to wear something else, and that would mean leaving behind homework and hanging out with Amity. The question was, where would she go, how would she get there, and with what would she use to buy clothing items. Her heart clenched at the thought of a mall about an hour (walking distance at least) away from her home. “What if I were to say shopping trip?” She asks hesitantly. “I would say after you get your homework finished.” Amity giggles when Luz pouts and sighs dramatically. 

“But  _ Mittens _ ,” Her heart clenches and she can’t decide who she wants to kill more in that moment, her idiot brother or idiot sister for giving Luz their nickname for her, “it would be so much fun, and adventurous!” Amity sighs and starts walking, leaving Luz to catch herself as Amity chuckles when she trips to walk next to her. “Everything I do with you is an adventure Luz.” “Not Azura Book Club!” The latino girl yells in defiance and Amity laughs. “Luz that’s us literally reading books  _ about  _ adventure!” “But nothing is trying to sew us into books or put us into a mind-melting hole or show us our worst fear!” They continue to have their friendly banter all the way back down into the livingroom, Luz plopping down on the couch and continuing to justify the safety of Azura Book Club while AMity defies it good-naturedly. 

“Shopping trip when I get un-suspended?” Luz asks after a very loud, shrill, and funny debate. She’s so comfortable on the couch (full potato mode activated) amd Amity is curled up on the opposite side with her own homework in hand, diligently having balanced the debate and her studies while Luz procrastinated and flung at least three pencils across the room (Amity was now only down to one but it would be fine if Luz lost her last pencil, they could spend extra time together looking for it, and knowing Luz she’d probably make it into a competition) With a sigh, Amity gave her a soft smile. “Shopping trip when you get unsuspended.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you read Adventure in Seahawk's voice then you just automatically gained +10 cool points


	10. Time Sure Does Fly By

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eda has a brilliant idea, Luz feels a little hesitant, and what's this? Another two parter chapter? (The author must be put to a stop!)
> 
> also very very brief hint at suicide idealization, it will be bolded and italicised, it is six words long and doesn't commit to anything and isn't mentioned anywhere else. It's very brief but I want to make sure you all are trigger warned beforehand

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha my diligent writing skills go brrrrrr (away. far far away. I have to slay my procrastination demon once more. I shall see you all when the battle has concluded)
> 
> Also for those who didn't see, six word trigger warning on it being a hint at suicide idealization, it is bolded and underlined, only six words long and at the very very end of the chapter

“Hey Eda?” Luz’s voice carries from the top of the stairs down to the couch where Eda is playing Hexas Holdem. “What’s up kid?” She’s sporting a wicked grin and Hooty is sort of bouncing around in excitement, not knowing how to play but seemingly pretty good at it without noticing as Eda cheats and brushes up on her skills. Luz peaks around the corner, a nervous look on her face as she tries to get Eda’s attention a few more times.

“What is it Luz, can’t you see we’re playing a game?” Luz scratches the back of her neck and fully steps out of the stairway, her wings wrapped tight around her sides. They had ripped her tank top to be able to protrude completely and Luz hadn’t realized they had even sprouted until she rolled over and felt uncomfortable as they were pinned between her back and her nest when she woke up ten minutes earlier. “Oh boy, how did this happen?” Eda asks with a grimace and Luz groans. “I don’t even know! It’s like this curse has a mind of its own. One minute I’m fine and human and smooth and then I’m wanting to jump into a tree and I’m growing claws and feathers!” Eda nods and holds her deck up. “Yeah, the curse is a handful. It’s probably still settling in your body, it’s only been a few days.” Eda says and sets down a new card. 

Luz lays on the arm of the chair, “I wish it would settle sooner.” She pouts and Eda sighs as she looks over her shoulder at the kid. “Would it make you feel better if I taught you how to fly?” Luz falls off the couch in excitement and scrambles over to Eda. “You can do that?” She yells and Eda snorts. “Did you forget that I’ve had that curse since I was in Hexide? If I can’t teach you how to fly then I’m as horrible a teacher as I was a student.” Luz sports a huge smile as she jumps onto Eda and hugs the woman before sprinting out the front door yelling, “What are we waiting for then?” 

“Wait what about my game?” The game was abandoned (much to Eda’s disappointment and Hooty’s delight at the thought that he had won, even if it was by default). 

Now Luz was sitting cross legged on the ground hanging on to every word Eda said. “Flying is simple but very complicated. Depending on how you fly can depend on whether or not you live or die. But right now, you’ve never flown before-” Luz feels confused then. “Hey wait a minute, I flew when I was rescuing you from the emperor!” Luz counters and Eda turns. “Yes  _ but  _ you weren’t entirely you at that moment. You were surviving purely on instinct and even gave the majority of the control to the curse, you’re lucky it didn’t take complete control of you or fly you into the ocean or something. We were lucky enough that King and I were able to get on Owlbert before our weight became too much for you.” Luz huffs but nods and tries her best to listen to the rest, she really does, but she keeps getting distracted. What would she do when she learned how to fly? She could fly to Hexide, or around the Boiling Isles. Maybe she could get an advantage on a few beast class exams? Maybe she could fly to Amity’s house and they could do Azura book club there! “Luz, Luz are you still listening?” Eda’s snapping fingers shake her out of her thoughts and she stumbles to cover up her blunder. “Yup, totally listening, you know me, open-eared Luz as they say.” She gives a nervous chuckle and Eda looks at her with squinted eyes. “Well I don’t know who ‘they’ are but I’m going to choose to believe you rather than re-explain everything.” Eda claps her hands together, “Now kid, get on Owlbert, you’re gonna need to get high up.” 

“What? Why?” Luz asks in confusion and Eda smirks. “Ha! Knew you weren’t listening. Anyways, we’re taking a page out of nature’s book. No better way to let you learn how to fly than kicking you out of the nest, or well off Owlbert I suppose but you get what I mean.” Luz gives a nervous chuckle. “Or, you know, maybe there’s an option where you don’t push me - have I ever mentioned how humans can’t fly on their own? - off a magical staff a hundred feet in the air?” Eda rubs her chin in thought. “You’re right, a hundred feet is ridiculous. Two hundred feet it is! Great thinking Luz!” Eda claps Luz on the back as the girl grimaces. “Couldn’t we, you know, maybe wait for Principle Bump or Amity to come by so that, you know, someone with actively working magic could save me if I  _ didn’t _ learn how to fly in time to save myself? Did I mention how humans typically die when they hit the ground too hard?” 

“Several times! But don’t worry Luz, it’ll be okay. Probably. And hey, if anything goes wrong, Owlbert will catch you.” Eda gives Luz a genuine look of “hey, it’s okay” and Luz nods and gulps nervously but gets onto the magic staff that now floated before them (she had a vague memory of seeing Eda screwing Owlbert into his staff place while she was lost in thought). “R-run me through the plan again?” She stutters and watches as King comes out with a juicebox. “Okay so Owlbert is gonna take you two hundred feet in the air,” Luz nods and gently grips the wood a little tiger, her wings folded close to her sides, “then when you get up there you’re gonna leap off with your wings out, at least then you might catch an air current and be able to ride it for a second if you can’t seem to fly.” 

  
Luz’s mouth feels dry but she nods and is soon being lifted into the air. Twenty feet, Luz breathes in a deep breath. Forty feet, she’s scared, eighty feet, her heart is pounding in her chest. “Are you sure this is a good idea? She seems really scared.” King says and Eda squints. “Yeah she does look pretty pale, if it turns out to be a bust we won’t do this again, kid must be afraid of heights or something.” One hundred sixty feet, she can practically hear her mother chastising her and telling her to come down, one hundred seventy feet, tears are popping into her eyes. Two hundred feet. She’s there. She can barely see Eda and King and Hooty waiting down there for her on the ground. It’s hard to breathe, and not because of a lack of oxygen. ** _A disturbing thought pops into her head_**. But she’s okay. Today has been a good day. She’s okay. She’s okay. She steadies her breathing and closes her eyes for a minute. “Okay Luz, come on. You can do this.” Luz stands up on the staff, expands her wings, and leaps as far away as she can. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MR BLUE SKY STARTED PLAYING WHEN I STARTED WRITING ABOUT HER IN THE AIR I DON'T KNOW HOW TO FEEL


End file.
